[KLUG Members] Is Linux faster than Windows?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> There is alot that goes into an OS being better than another and one may be
> better than the other in certain areas.  I am sure that most of you know
> what I mean by that.  

Yep, thats why I still have AIX boxes around.

> But is Linux a better performer when it comes to pure speed? and why?  

There is no such thing as "pure speed".  It depends upon the
application, quality of drivers for given hardware, etc...  Performance
is an amazingly complex event.

> Now that PTC has developed pro-e to run on Linux I would

Er?  Who is PTC and what is pro-e?

> love to put the same box running Windows and Linux head to head.  What do
> you think would be the out come?

If you use an out-of-the-box install I'd wager Windows would win.  If
you go into System Tools -> More System Tools -> Kernel Tuning and make
the appropriate adjustments as well as double check your hard drive
parameters - then it would be interesting.  RedHat, etc..., do not have
the testing resources that M$ and other have, so Linux very often
defaults to safest least common denominator defaults,  where as Windows 
has a "huge" database of best-values-per-hardware-device.

> A lot of animation houses made the switch I hear that FEA vendors are making
> the move.  And now I am starting to hear more Linux talk come from some of
> my vendors that push CAD related software/hardware.
> Any thoughts

It also depends alot on the quality of the port - does it use native
widget set share by other application, native calls or some screwy
translation libary (WINE, etc..).  Is it even compiled with
optimization...  Word Perfect for instance.  They came out with a Linux
port, first available word processor - and a dreadful dog; statically
linked, shipped loaded with debugging symbols, etc..